By Boxing Bob Newman
The mandatory challenger meeting opened day 3 of the 56th WBC convention in Kyiv, Ukraine. This is easily as contentious an affair as is the ratings meeting. Starting with the heavyweight division, possibly one of the more complex scenarios regarding mandatory status, things got off to a gritty start.
Dominic Breazeale had won a mandatory eliminator against Eric Molina, while at the same time, Dillian Whyte of the UK has won several WBC Silver championship fights and remains ranked #1, which isn’t the same as being mandatory challenger. The situation grows more complex as WBC champion Deontay Wilder is slated to fight lineal champion Tyson Fury on December 1. The winner of that fight will most certainly look to unify all the belts against Anthony Joshua, which would further set back any mandatory defense against either Breazeale or Whyte. To be continued…
Four belt champion in the cruiserweight division, Oleksandr Usyk will defend against WBC emeritus champion Tony Bellew. The winner, will face the ever complex task of four different mandatories to be ironed out.
Adonis Stevenson, the light heavyweight champ, will face mandatory challenger and interim champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on December 1 in Quebec City.
Super middleweight champion David Benavides was found to have marijuana in his system after a voluntary testing. World Boxing Super Series winner Callum Smith happens to be the WBC Diamond champion as well. Benavides will be designated as champion in recess until at such time the WBC rules on his situation. Meanwhile, there has been a motion for #1 Anthony Dirrel to fight #2 Avni Yildirim with the winner in a position to face Benavides, should he still be champion.
In the middleweight division, new champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is requesting via his promoter Oscar de la Hoya a voluntary defense. Gennady Golovkin, through his promoter Tom Loeffler is requesting an immediate rematch. Interim champion Jermall Charlo, through Sampson Lewkowicz who was representing Charlos’ promoter Tom Brown, is requesting to fight Canelo for the full WBC championship. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman proposed a solution to satisfy all involved- Golovkin vs Charlo and Canelo in a voluntary defense. Sulaiman’s proposal was approved unanimously. The WBC did however support an immediate rematch if the other scenarios doesn’t come to fruition. Continue reading “WBC 56th convention Day 3: Mandatories”
By Boxing Bob Newman The mandatory challenger meeting opened day 3 of the 56th WBC convention in Kyiv, Ukraine. This is easily as contentious an affair as is the ratings…
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